Quotes and thoughts i liked lately...

John Steinbeck once wrote “It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world."

As happens sometimes a moment settled...and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped…for much, much more than a moment.And then the moment was gone.

What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gages and dials and registers.And we can read only a few. And those perhaps not accurately.

You know, sometimes we hold back to spare each other’s feelings, and our own.

T.H. White said,"Perhaps we all give the best of our hearts uncritically…to those who hardly think about us in return"

What am i listenin to this week?

1. Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
2. Ryan Cabrera - True
3. Travis - Re-offender
4. Stereophonics - Dakota
5. Rob Thomas - Lonely no more

bored with cricket!

have realised that i'm really bored with cricket nowadays...not willing to just stay at home and not do anything but just watch the match...every ball of a test match...can't really remember when I last did that...must be when I was home in Cal during college days! Soccer is the name of the game - where the game's shorter, is exciting sometimes even when no goals are scored! I think there's too much cricket nowadays...everywhere! And who wants to see Zimbabwe and Bangladesh play?? Gimme a break! I think cricket is slowly moving towards Twenty20 replacing onedayers for sure. And maybe a club system (revamping the county game) would get more excitin..seeing Sehwag and Gilchrist hammering Pollock and Lee together...I would pay my money to watch that for sure. I don't wanna see some of the Indian players playing just to retain their positions in the team! Complete waste of time!

What am i listenin to this week?

1. Scooter - Shake that
2. The MAHP - Shadow
3. Finger Eleven - One thing
4. Phantom Planet - California
5. Kevin Lyttle - Turn me on

grass is greener everywhere....

Was comin to office when me and my flatmate got started talking abt how only 24 drivers exist in the whole world in Formula 1 and how difficult the driving is (with ure neck taking a beating and losing 1-2 kgs every race)! But isn't that what they really love to do - driving in the fast lane? I guess thats all that they ever think about...Then we started thinking why are we never satisfied in what we are doing...maybe we are just not too keyed up or passionate abt our jobs. We do the hours, do the work and come home...how many days u wake up and just wanna rush to office coz u really wanna be there...soaking every second of it??? I really have to think hard and long on that one! But I think I'm just not that risk-taking to throw it all (whatever lil' I got) and start off something of my own...have all these weird and sometimes awesome plans (some which i know are gonna be taken up by someone else pretty soon and I would be paying for them...lol) but never do anything abt them. So who is to blame that the job that I am in is not the one I dream about??? ME!!!

La musica de 'The Motorcycle Diaries' y "Buena Vista Social Club'

La música asombra! If you like latin music...you like your body swaying involuntarily to the beats then these are the two albums you should sample.

The Motorcycle Diaries OST: Gustavo Santaolalla has created a masterpiece...a piece which blends progressive rock with jazz and ethnic beats. check out the tracks Apertura and La partida from the diaries. I can guarantee that you would like them...actually love them!!! They are awesome. I ordered my CD from amazon today.

Buena Vista Social Club: In 1996, composer, producer, and guitar legend Ry Cooder entered Egrem Studios in Havana with the forgotten greats of Cuban music, many of them in their 60s and 70s, some of them long since retired. The resulting album, Buena Vista Social Club, became a Grammy-winning international bestseller. Click for more history.

"Music is a treasure hunt. You dig and dig and sometimes you find something. In Cuba the music flows like a river. It takes care of you and rebuilds you from the inside out." - Ry Cooder

Sucker for sitcoms!

Here I went again! Picked up the first season of 'The OC' and got addicted to it like I was addicted to '21 Jump Street' and 'Beverly Hills 90210' when I was in high school. Don't hate me for it but I think I'm a sucker for sitcoms...well still can't see Bold and the Beautiful though. And even if you don't like sitcoms, I think its worth checking out the soundtrack for the show. Its quite indie and has bands like Spoon, Jet, The Dandy Warhols, Pantom Planet. I think the music really rocks!!!

What am i listenin to this week?

1. Robbie Williams - Strong
2. U2 - City of blinding lights
3. Henry Mancini - Moon river
4. Dire Straits - Walk of life
5. Switchfoot - Dare you to move

Diarios de motocicleta: a journey within!

“What do we leave behind when we cross each frontier? Each moment seems split in two; melancholy for what was left behind and the excitement of entering a new land” - Che Guevara

I had only heard abt 'Che' and his part in the Cuban revolution. He is the icon thats well recognised through people wearing his t-shirts but I guess very few know who he really was or what he really did. Buts its only when I started reading the book 'Motorcycle Diaries' that I started to know Che, the person. The book is not about overly stated political ideals. Its about a coming of age story of two young men - Guevara and Granado. Whats the undertstated theme of this journal is that you can do what you really want to, if you want to. Yesterday I saw the movie. Its just beautiful. Though its in spanish and is based in 1950s in south america, you feel you know the characters from somewhere - the symmetry of riches and poverty, of happiness and pain.

I loved this quote from the book and the movie:
"Although we're too insignificant to be spokemen for such a noble cause, we believe, and this journey has only served to confirm this belief, that the division of America into unstable and illusory nations is a complete fiction. We are one single mestizo race with remarkable ethnohraphical similarities, from Mexico down to the Magellan Straits. And so, in an attempt to break free from all narrow-minded provincialism, I propose a toast to Peru and to a United America."



The Motorcycle Diaries: Gael Garcia Bernal (right) takes Alberto Granado and Rodrigo de la Serna for a spin

ManUtd: just giving us the blues!!!

ManUtd crashed out of the Champion's League on Tuesday. It was once again a case of 'so close but no cigar'. On second thoughts was it that close anyways. The last couple of seasons, if you have been a ManUtd fan, you would have few things to cheer about. But i'm one of those die hard fans who would always look for a silver lining how terrible the odds maybe. But its the case of one too many. The goalkeepers should be shot by a firing squad. Its not that they have let in goals like its nobody's business, but the ones they have let in have been kicks in the gut. Carroll might have played his last match for the club after his blunder with Milan. And seriously we can't play Keane and Scholes together. They are just too slow. We might need to get a Scott Parker or Gattuso (that guy was amazin in the last game). Though I would hate it, I think we need to sell Nistelrooy, Rooney is the future with Smith and Saha more than able partners in crime. Its a fact that unless we sell we can't buy. So lets see how the transfer season looks like in the summer. Right now all you can do is listen to the blues!

The Sultan of swing!

He came, we saw and we got conquered! Mark Knopfler came to Bangalore, made us swing for a couple of hours and left us panting for more. He looked unassuming, dressed in a pristine white shirt and his jeans and sneakers...only his red headband was missing and maybe his mop of black hair (which has turned to silver and less of it too). But he made us realise looks are passe...J Lo can go take a hike...his guitar talked and we listened! I wished I was born 20 years earlier so I could see him strutting around the stage (which I guess he can't do no more specially after his accident)...but this will very well do, thank you! Mark was not 'so far away' last night!!! He was right there, right then taking us back to when we were growing up listening to his smooth voice and magic fingers taming the beast of a Fender!!!

city of blinding lights?

While I was touching down in Mumbai, coincidently I had U2 singing 'City of Blinding Lights' to me. Actually it was quite nice to see lights shimmering like fire-flies even early in the morning. I guess this is the only city in India where you can get to see so many lights so late at night. This is when I start thinking I should shift to this city. This city has so much energy and if you wait for a moment you feel you have been left behind. There's the hustle and bustle of a big city and the live-and- let-live philosophy of people. Its so unlike Bangalore where I feel the only thing that is good now is the weather (which is also testing everyone's patience). Traffic kills you in a different way. In Mumbai you might be taking time to cover huge distances, but in Bangalore a 20 km stretch takes you close to 2 hours to drive with the gears alternating between 1st and 2nd. Its just bumper to bumper. It has started to remind me of Calcutta which is not good!